


Golden Baubles

by jemejem



Series: Andreil Week 2k19 [6]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Christmas, Day Six: Holidays, Fluff, M/M, again!, andreil week, because i just got lectured by my christian reform leader, cuteness, look at me go, that satan is trying to ruin christmas through capitalism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 18:24:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19773844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jemejem/pseuds/jemejem
Summary: Andrew and Neil have never known a happy holiday. Perhaps that can change.





	Golden Baubles

_christmas eve_

They were in Target when Neil had a stupid idea, and was ninety-nine percent sure Andrew would _actually_ kill him this time. 

It was December, which neither of them had ever really acknowledged, or wanted to focus on. Since moving in together they’d never spent it separately, and it’d been a few years since they’d  
lived apart. 

Neil was almost tempted to buy Andrew a present and a little stocking in secret, since Andrew wouldn’t be able to refuse, but he hated backing Andrew into a corner, especially with something like this. Slipping vegetables he hated into pasta was one thing: Potentially triggering your partner of ten years with illusions of a happy childhood was another demon entirely. 

Andrew’s expression didn’t change when they’d entered the store, despite the green-and-red vomit being so visually intense that Neil’s eyes had to readjust, but Neil noticed the steeled neutrality every time. Andrew was just very good at avoiding expressions. 

But he was walking pretty fast for a guy who didn’t like cardio.

“Hey.” Neil jogged to catch up from being lost in thought. “How mad would you be about me buying a little Christmas tree?”

Andrew gave him the briefest of side glances and said nothing. 

“I think the cats would like to play with it.” Neil offered. “Nothing too big: We wouldn’t be able to put it up.” 

Andrew stopped walking just by a rack of waving snowmen. Neil waited patiently for Andrew’s decision: Some would probably be fearful, thinking Andrew was attempting to not throttle him. Neil knew better. If Andrew wanted to strangle him, he’d already be dead. The man was hellishly efficient when he wanted to be.

Andrew was just thinking about every possible detail within a matter of seconds. 

Then he said “Fine.”

Neil arched an eyebrow, but didn’t challenge him, or point out that was _his_ line.

It meant they’d talk about it at home. 

He grabbed a trolley and pushed it around: Andrew shoved the smallest Christmas tree into the cart, and a single box of decorations. Neither of them really appreciated loud noises so they avoided the crackers, but Neil had an idea and put fairy lights in too. 

“We live in an apartment.” Andrew said flatly. 

“I know.” Neil shrugged. Andrew didn’t bother asking twice. 

It wasn’t expensive, and neither of them had bought presents, so it was faster than Neil expected. At home was faster too: Neil remembered helping his mother decorate the tree at home, his tiny hands only being able to reach a few branches up. All Neil and Andrew had was a little tree that they put on the dining table and appointed with a star and little gold baubles. The cats jumped up—much to Andrew’s ire— to play with them immediately. 

Andrew left to make eggnog in the kitchen, so Neil went into the living room and dragged two chairs together, gathering all their blankets and pillows. He made a fort in the best way he knew how, which was still pretty good, seeing as Matt and the girls had dragged him into many in college. He hung the fairy lights and turned them on, before crawling inside. 

It was soft and comfortable. Neil understood why they were a child favourite. 

“What have you done to our living room?” Andrew asked flatly. 

Neil poked his head out. “Thought it’d be nice. Coming?” 

Andrew handed him the mugs and crawled inside, gazing around the small space with distaste. “I never made these as a kid.” _I never got too._

“Neither.” Neil sipped his eggnog. It was sweet but alright. “It’s nice.”

Andrew hummed. 

Neil settled back into the cushions. “I just wanted to try Christmas out. Seems like a lot of effort for nothing.”

“And you knew all that already.” Andrew muttered. “So why bother confirming something you already know?”

“To see if it’d changed.” Neil nudged their feet together as the cats’ curiosity finally won out and they slunk inside. “Christmas isn’t just about capitalism or Christianity. It’s family too.”

“Exactly.” Andrew said bluntly, eyes somewhere distant. “Christmas brings the family home.” 

Neil pressed his lips together. He knew he’d overstepped. 

But Andrew didn’t move. Instead, he took another sip of his eggnog and stroked Sir’s fur, who rolled onto her side and spread her limbs as she stretched. King looked up from cleaning himself, unimpressed, before returning to the task at hand. 

Then he said: “Thank you.” 

Neil smiled into his mug, linking their fingers together. Sir was reasonably angry at Neil for engaging Andrew’s hand when he’d been scratching her, and gnawed gently on Neil’s thumb. “No problem.”

**Author's Note:**

> another short one! also ive been on a christian reformation (prison) camp for a week now and i hate everything so this was fun :))))
> 
> (if they knew i was writing about two gays and their cats blemishing the sacred holiday of christmas theyd have my head)


End file.
